3 White Pine logs,

[glenn kangiser]

[Don_P]

Yup, I think some of your ancestors landed here Glenn.Usually fencewire isn't too bad, a friend hit a grown over Tpost once. I think my worst so far was some walnuts from the HVAC guy. He said hed been there 25 years and never drove a nail in a tree. Sure enough a few years deeper in I hit the cluster of nails and a hank of poly clothesline, only time I've thrown a tooth and its shank. Old time wisdom around here was that fruit and nut trees would bear better if stressed, this involved nails and beating, I sweep them well and almost always find metal in the lower log.

I forgot to answer before John, yes the chip carving is mine. It's a very old and easy form of ornamentation. I've seen the insides of peasant dwellings in eastern Europe that have practically no wooden surface untouched, long winters. I was playing with a compass and knife, I've toyed with the thought of making some of those rosettes as corner blocks for window and door trim. I've used the same technique around light blocks in ceilings and on door head trims. Another name for eastern white pine is "pumpkin pine", I've heard people say that it is because of the color of the heartwood and some say it is because it carves as easily as a pumpkin.

PEG, don't know if you have it but this is a good link at the FPL, the menu of their wood species technical sheets;
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/techmenu.html
This is Western white pine;
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/SoftwoodNA/htmlDocs/pinusmonticola.html

[Pine Cone]

I've got a little bit of white pine I milled up.  Here is a picture of some of it...



The problem here in the wet PNW is getting it dry while keeping it well ventilated.  The blue stain fungus is introduced by the same group of bark beetles that helped to kill the tree, so your wood is already inoculated with the stain.  The stain only effects sapwood.  Drying the wood quickly will reduce how much stain you get. 

If I had the chance to redo my milling project I would have left about a foot of space below the stacks - I used some cinderblocks under the pile to start it but only used 1-block high.  I would use 2-blocks if I did it over.  I am assuming you have an indoor space for stacking the wood but I did not and the moisture coming up into my drying area from the ground appears to be considerable.  I just finished planing some boards and the lowest two layers were noticably wetter that boards from higher up in the stack.

I you can you might consider running a fan to push air though the stack of boards for the first week or two when they are the wettest.  We made the mistake of covering the pile in the Costco-carports seen in the picture, and while we opened the top ends some, when we came back after the first week it was obvious we did not have enough ventilation and we had lots of mold.   Our boards have ended up drying very nicely with almost no checking and only minor cupping.

We used fresh-cut boards milled at the same time as everything else for stickers.  If you look at the photo below you can see where the sticker was in the 6x12 timber directly above the door.  The cabin walls and the boards and battens on the gable ends are all wood from the stacks in the first picture.  You can see that the amount of blue stain varies.  We also had some minor wood-boring beetle activity in the larger timber about 1/8" directly under the stickers.  I guess it kept those areas wetter and gave the beetles a chance to develop a bore more wood. 



Good luck with your millilng project.  Given your skills I'm sure you can turn the wood into some amazing stuff!

[glenn kangiser]

Nice stack of cants and boards, Pine Cone.  I have a bunch of sugar Pine to do that with but I have to re-level my mill first.  Whitlock says he got some pretty crooked edged boards from the last batch.  

I sometimes have friendly boards.  They wave at you.

[Redoverfarm]

Could be "thick or thin".

[glenn kangiser]

Absolutely.

When the blade gets a bit dull they get interesting.

[PEG688]

 
Didn't hit any metal , got about 300 BF of lumber out of it.


 




Top log netted this ,



 


The big log is now the wider boards, I see a have a couple flipped end for end,


 



 






$150.00 USD , I gave him a $10.00 tip.

[Redoverfarm]

I see you left a couple large planks (bark intact).  What were your intentions?

[MountainDon]

Now we wait..... 

[PEG688]

I see you left a couple large planks (bark intact).  What were your intentions?

I ripped the edges off those with the skilsaw, IIRC they where the first two "boards" he ripped off the first log so it was sort of him "setting up" his equipment.

  I only kept one live edge chunk I think I'll make a quick garden bench out of it.

[glenn kangiser]

I knew you would get some good looking boards.... now to see what you will come up with

[PEG688]

  I tallied the board foot count this AM , right at 377 BF. So about .42 cents USD.

They look like as nice or better than the local "knotty Pine" I get at the lumber yard, and I have wider, thicker boards to play with.

I'd definitely do it again.

He also offered to re-sawn any stock I wanted at no charge if I brought the planks to him.

And he said if I came across shorter logs or pieces that had promise he'd saw those at his place pretty cheap. So a cut off log section here or there that I'd normally pass up , now is back in play.

[glenn kangiser]

I know that you will not be able to bring yourself down to my level of Rustic, PEG, but I will not hold that against you. 

[PEG688]

 Everyone has thier own style , it's all good. You fill your needs, or wants. 

How's your weather been Glenn?

[diyfrank]

Peg,
Where is this mill located, What county?
If I could get his contact info and he's near, I may contact him in the future from time to time.

[PEG688]

Peg,
Where is this mill located, What county?
If I could get his contact info and he's near, I may contact him in the future from time to time.

He's here on Whidbey, his card says he'll work in Island and Skagit counties.

www.sawmillservice.com  :   Steve Gschwend 360-679-1320 or 360-320-0453 cell. He'll come to your site or you can haul into his place.

G/L PEG   

[diyfrank]

Thanks, I'm in mt Vernon.
At times I have good access to short logs.  (under 24')
We haven't cleared any land in the last year & a half though.  We've been developing land that Developers have started and then let sit unfinished.

[glenn kangiser]

Everyone has thier own style , it's all good. You fill your needs, or wants.  

How's your weather been Glenn?

We have gone from rain and more rain to a bit of sun and clouds  and got more rain coming.

I just got another 2 to 3 week job but it is all inside and the rain can't bother me so likely during that time we will get unscheduled sunshine.  [ouch]

[PEG688]

  Got my racks built today , the frames came from work so no cost involved except fasteners to screw them to the shop wall with.

 

  Now we wait, up until this point it's been work.      So Mtn. D was partly right two weeks ago when he said "Now we wait". 

   

[MountainDon]

I was waiting for you to do some work, so we could all wait some more.   

[Pine Cone]

Nice looking boards!

I can't tell if you painted the ends with anything.  I assume you did, but if you are planing on doing more of this I like the wax-based Anchor Seal http://www.loghomestore.com/finish-wood-preservative.shtml#anchor-seal  I have also used a latex-based finish but I didn't like it as well.

Can't wait to see what you turn them into.

[Whitlock]

Peg you build anything with them yet???

[PEG688]

Peg you build anything with them yet???

  No, not yet. A bit early for the thicker stuff, hasn't been a year yet, so I'm sure they need more time to dry out. Besides I've been extremely busy at "real work", we're closing in on the big house attempting to get it "live-able" so the owners can spend a month or so on the Channel.

The lumber looks good still , no staining like some on WBF said would happen , last time I stuck to with the moisture meter it was @ 10% , but thats pretty much just the surface, I did run one plank thru the planer and it cleaned up nicely , but I could tell from the shavings that there's still a bit of inner moisture in the stock.

I'm in no rush, and I think I've decided it's gonna become a couch for the living room , maybe some time in 2011.

Thanks for asking, it nice to know some one else has interest.

           

[glenn kangiser]

We'll be waiting to see the art work, PEG.